#like herding cats
Note
Do you have any thoughts about the 27 chapter method of writing or are there other ones you might recommend more? I’m extremely disorganized and indecisive when writing which is frustrating because I never actually end up making progress. An existing outline method to at least get all of my thoughts down and decide where the story will go (instead of 27 possibilities and nothing concrete) would be extremely helpful but I don’t want a very obvious cookie cutter type story if that makes sense
The 27-chapter method works well for some people, but I'm not a huge fan. It fucks with my ADHD too much because if I map something out and define it as having 27 chapters, then it's got to have 27 chapters, no more, no less. If I realize during the writing process that the plan isn't going to be executed the way I envisioned it, so help me, god, my brain will derail this entire thought train, and there will be no survivors.
It was a problem I frequently ran into when redrafting the first Hunger Pangs book, and my brain melted trying to assign chapters to things. I told my editors at one point, "I can't do this. Can you find where the chapter breaks should go?" and they very graciously took my walls of text and figured out where the chapter breaks should go because it's just not something my brain is good at doing. In fact, it was preventing me from actually writing.
(I suspect that's why I enjoyed the earlier Pratchett books so much. No chapters = no breaking my focus.)
It sounds to me like you're a natural pantser, not a plotter, but you're also (like me) the type of person who needs a liittttle bit of structure to help you keep flying by the seat of your pants or the momentum drops off, and you get bogged down in the wrong details.
The way I do this is to basically sit myself down and figure out the A to Z of the story, write down a list of things I Absolutely Want to Have Happen that I set into stone, and then kind of start listing things off like bullet points. Like this:
So top of my page is the starting goal, what do I want to have happen? I want my Blorbo to go on an adventure. Why? To... defeat the Evil Blorbo!
That is basically as simplistic as you can get. Some people don't need to get that simple, but sometimes setting it down on paper really helps, especially when you're prone to getting stuck in other details that don't progress the plot.
Next, I list out the core things I want to happen that are set in stone. So things like:
-Blorbo's parent dies.
-Blorbo meets the ragtag band of adventurers who teach them to survive.
-Blorbo gets a sword that is integral to world-building.
-Blorbo gets a scar as a sign of both the physical and psychological changes that have affected them.
-Evil Blorbo gets their ass kicked.
Those things are set in stone like milestone markers and I will usually try to make them hit certain narrative beats for whatever genre I'm in, though not always. Sometimes a cool sword is just a cool sword.
Next, I move on to figuring out how I get to those points.
This is when I start writing the plot out as a laundry list:
PART ONE
Blorbo wakes up on the farm one day. It is a [descriptor] day. How does Blorbo feel about this?
Blorbo and their dad have a meaningful and deep conversation that will make the reader instantly hate you for killing him off in the next ten pages.
Blorbo meets up with their friends. Character building and perhaps some world-building ensues.
An EVENT of some sort happens, and CHAOS ensues.
PARENTAL FIGURE eats shit and dies.
Blorbo is thrust out into the world.
Blorbo on the road: shit is terrifying, and they really wish this adventure was happening to someone else.
And so on, so forth.
I make a point not to number any of these individual parts, as it helps me to move them around if I need to without feeling like I'm breaking up some set-in-stone order. If you want to try and break your list up into Parts to follow conventional story arcs, you can do that too.
But you can also leave that until the end if you like. As I said, I split my stuff up into chapters and parts during the editing phase.
There's no one right way to do this.
I also try to keep the list vague, as if I personally go into too much detail during the plotting stage, I lose interest in actually exploring the narrative details while writing. Because fuck me I guess.
Don't worry if the above is too vague for you. Nothing is stopping you from going back to those bullet points and expanding on them later if that works better for your creative needs.
The main goal right now is just getting from A to Z and listing out the steps so that you have a roadmap to find your way before you get distracted. It really is just sometimes helpful to say "Character does X" so you can move on and keep plotting until you have the vaguest of outlines which you can then expand on further if you want to.
After I've bullet-pointed my way from start to finish, I'll maybe go back and identify some areas in the story where I should be hitting certain genre beats, but otherwise, I'll just start writing and see what fits where.
Some people are likely screaming at how simplistic and undetailed that is, but again, everyone's creative process is different, and it's really just about playing around until you find that one that works for you.
I've tried just about every "how to write" guide out there, and in the end what works for me is a bastardized amalgamation of all of them.
I can't be a true panster, but nor can I be a detailed plotter.
I absolutely cannot think of things in strict chapter outlines or I will get overwhelmed. But breaking them up into parts is fine.
I also have to remind myself that sometimes when you are writing, a better solution will present itself and this does not mean the whole project needs to change/you need to start over.
The destination is still the same, and you will likely still hit many of the same points along the way. It's just now you might be taking a detour, and thankfully, you don't have to redraw the whole map. You can just follow the signs marked "diversion," which thankfully, you can also control because all of this is within you control.
Even when it doesn't feel like it.
I hope some of that is helpful. I'm still trying to work out how to explain how I do things in a clear manner. So I apologize if this isn't helpful 😅
#writing#plotting#pantsing#herding your adhd into writing a plot outline#like herding cats#long post
997 notes
·
View notes
Text
Me trying to write one or both of the w.i.ps: David, you bitch
4 notes
·
View notes
Photo
#twdedit#the walking dead world beyond#nico tortorella#jelani alladin#aliyah royale#felix carlucci#will campbell#iris bennett#the bennett carlucci campbell family#gif#twd world beyond#like herding cats
2 notes
·
View notes
Photo
the wedding of Lyra Rian and Crystal Oates
#this was such a pain in the ass#i wanted to gather every living member of the Rian-Goth family#including the Ishida branch and the Vatores#ugh#like herding cats#ts4#Legendary Legacy#llgen4#Lyra Rian#Crystal Oates#Rian-Goth Household
6 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Lucas and Mabel’s Wedding in Oasis Springs
#my wedding stories#like herding cats#sims 4#simblr#sims 4 simblr#sims 4 story#sims 4 storytelling#gameplay#sims 4 gameplay#The Sims 4 Gameplay#the sims 4
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
He finally texted me yesterday when I was on my way to rehearsal so he is still talking to me. I would love to know why he’s so difficult to talk to at the beginning of the week but whatever
0 notes
Text
The dynamic in Rise between the rest of the team and Leo is. so fucking funny. Because like you've got these three extremely talented individuals who all seem like perfectly reasonable people at first glance, right, but then if you squint hard enough you realize they're actually all batshit insane (affectionate) and the clown boy standing behind them is secretly their common sense.
Clown boy will occasionally put himself and the others in danger to Prove Himself or Prove Someone Wrong (see Minotaur Maze and the movie) but like otherwise... i think people forget Leo's overwhelmingly the voice of reason in most situations?
Raph, Mikey, and Donnie are all incredibly powerful boys with very specific skill sets. They are also, as a direct result of this, the WORST decision-makers on god's green earth lmao. When presented with a problem, Raph will smash, Donnie will blow shit up, and Mikey will razzmatazz. They will all run straight toward death with the same oblivious enthusiasm of a dog about to run straight into a screen door. None of them realize this and all of them think they are Extremely Good At Problem-Solving.
And the guy cursed with the common sense to realize this is literally the LAST person anyone would expect.
When you look closely, the entirety of Rise is actually a chronicle of Leo trying to find new and creative ways to keep this team of superpowered fools alive while simultaneously white-knuckling his Cool Fun Guy persona so the others don't realize he's secretly the Boring Responsible One. Haha, you know what would be Cool and Fun, guys? Not going after the Spine Breaking Bandit lol. Getting home before the sun goes up lol. Evacuating that civilian lol. Not telling the guy dangling me off a roof "you won't, no balls" lol.
The sacred struggle of every iteration of Leonardo is thanklessly wrangling the most trigger-happy siblings in the world, and Rise Leo has not escaped it. He just does an occasional shenanigan to avoid detection and his brothers fall for it every time.
#rottmnt#rottmnt leo#rise leo#leo#donnie#mikey#raph#raph has the Older Brother Stress while leo has the Common Sense Stress#GOD i adore Rise's take on leo so much#just a funny little guy subtly herding his brothers away from danger like cats while trying desperately to be Chill and Cool about it#he's been dodging the responsibility allegations for YEARS but Splinter caught him right at the very end of the show lmao#because like listen. listen. is rise raph responsible? yes.#is he--in practice--the Responsible One? absolutely NOT#raph is a RUFFIAN and a HOOLIGAN (extremely affectionate)#anyway i think the movie has made people forget that like. for a vast majority of the series leo's the voice of reason
16K notes
·
View notes
Text
dads' day out ;)
wip is here but final comic version will be a bit different because "plot" reasons ;) (if you even can call my comics a story XD)
#spiderverse#across the spiderverse#atsv#atsv fanart#deadpool#spiderman 2099#spiderman#wade wilson#yea he has daughters comics canon#miguel o'hara#peter b parker#besides that I'm still strugling#and damn drawing this one is like herding cats#uphill battle of I really want to draw it#but i dont even know what is gone ir got rusty#keep your fingers crossed it will pass
577 notes
·
View notes
Text
Happy Caturday! 😻 Enjoy dis outtake of Salem🎃😻 avoiding catnip. Not like she needs it, anyhow, mol. --Loki 💛😺
#cats#cat#plushie#puppet#stuffed animals#puppetry#plush animal#plush toys#puppets#plush cat#caturday#happy caturday#catnip#russian blue#outtakes#bloopers#like herding cats
0 notes
Text
#sleep token#its like herding a giant cat#vessel#ii#iii#iv#sleep token iii#you can see so much of their personalities in this i love it#my gif
468 notes
·
View notes
Text
Shout out to Finnick Odair for spending literally all of Catching Fire saving not only his own life AND everyone else’s especially Katniss, but also has to save Peeta because of How Katniss Is About Peeta and even while he’s in the middle of saving their lives or getting them food or whatever he has to talk Katniss down from fucking bolting like a skittish horse “😐 okay… you stay right there, cracking apart in your not? Boyfriend?’s arms that’s great I’ll go— NO KATNISS IM NOT GOING TO KILL YOU why do I even…”
#truly the mvp here#the hunger games#thg#catching fire#finnick odair#katniss everdeen#peeta mellark#katniss x peeta#sorry u must witness the 17yo’s mating rituals.#its like herding cats except there is one problem cat who’s clawing and scratching and biting
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
Trying to get all the companions to develop into the best possible version of themselves truly feels like herding a bunch of stubborn goats I'll be there shouting NO you're not fucking killing yourself OR becoming a god NO you're not ascending and NEITHER ARE YOU put that spear DOWN you're not becoming the ultimate Shar simp NO you're not becoming a mindsquid we're gonna FIX YOU and YOU aren't taking over anything you have the leadership skills and self awareness of an opossum NO your father isn't nice he's an ASSHOLE you need to prioritize yourself more YOU need a bloody vacation preferably with your kids before you give them absent mother trauma and.... you're doing great Minsc keep at it
Bonus points for when you're Durge and trying to be the designated group therapist while Bhaal is zapping what remains of your brain with murder fantasies
#bg3 spoilers#bg3#i love herding these assholes into getting better#it's like taking an angry cat to the vet#except it's like 10 of them#tiny Sceleritas save me
216 notes
·
View notes
Text
the funniest thing about comics being called inaccessible because it's "impossible to know where to start" is that there are several hundred comic fans running around with extremely detailed reading lists literally begging people with metaphorical dog treats to read the comics on them and then talk about their faves with them
if you can google, you can find an easy-to-understand starter list for a character or team you're interested in
#it's me. I'm one of several hundred comic fans with multiple detailed reading lists begging people to read comics#pls I want to talk about them with you! I want to share them! I am herding you all like cats into my obsession!#there are absolutely several reasons that comics are inaccessible to newbies. 'not knowing where to start' isn't really one of them#personal#dc comics#marvel comics#indie comics
613 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think about the Oceans Dream filler arc a lot
#nico robin#zoro#nami#mugiwara#straw hats#I just love that it's a sleep deprived Nico Robin trying to wrangle the pirate hating duo#like she's awake for 48 hours I think?#it's like herding cats#she's like. I don't know you guys that well but I swear we're a crew and we've had a good time in my opinion#She's precious and I love her
945 notes
·
View notes
Text
*slaps unfinished project like the roof of a car* there are so many moving parts in this bad boy that i Definitely for sure planned out how to resolve
74 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
americanroads
american roads
l0reenthusiast
the hero and the warrior- *gunshot*
japanese-emo
please die right now MOTHERFUCKER
japanese-emo
please die right now MOTHERFUCKER
phleb0tomist
urgent care ward